Seismic imaging of deep low-velocity zone beneath the Dead Sea basin and transform fault: Implications for strain localization and crustal rigidity

Seismic imaging of mantle transition zone discontinuities beneath the northern Red Sea and adjacent areas

S U M M A R Y The dramatic asymmetry in terms of surface elevation, Cenozoic volcanisms and earthquake activity across the Red Sea is an enigmatic issue in global tectonics, partially due to the unavailability of broad-band seismic data on the African Plate adjacent to the Red Sea. Here, we report the first comprehensive image of the mantle transition zone (MTZ) discontinuities using data from ...

Shallow architecture of the Wadi Araba fault (Dead Sea Transform) from high-resolution seismic investigations

In a high-resolution small-scale seismic experiment we investigated the shallow structure of the Wadi Araba fault (WAF), the principal fault strand of the Dead Sea Transform System between the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat and the Dead Sea. The experiment consisted of 8 sub-parallel 1 km long seismic lines crossing the WAF. The recording station spacing was 5 m and the source point distance was 20 m. The...

Investigation of the strength and trend of seismic anisotropy beneath the Zagros collision zone

The Zagros collision zone is known as an active tectonic zone that represents the tectonic boundary between the Eurasian and Arabian plates. A popular strategy for gaining insight into the upper mantle processes is to examine the splitting of seismic shear waves and interpret them in terms of upper mantle anisotropy and deformation. Core phases SK(K)S from over 278 earthquakes (MW ≥ ...

Crustal deformation along the Dead Sea Transform and the Carmel Fault inferred from 12 years of GPS measurements

[1] Large-scale crustal deformation in the Levant is mainly related to the DST and the CFS. The former is an active left lateral transform, bounding the Arabian plate and the Sinai sub-plate, and the latter branches out of the former and separates the Sinai sub-plate into two tectonic domains. In this study we obtain the velocities of 33 permanent GPS stations and 145 survey stations that were ...

Paleoseismic History of the Dead Sea Fault Zone